Plate XI. Male.
Tarsus and toes uniformly scutellate in their whole length. Bill
bluish-black, cere yellowish-brown, feet orange-yellow, claws
bluish-black. Upper part of the head, hind neck, back, scapulars,
rump, tail-coverts, and posterior tibial feathers blackish-brown,
glossed with a coppery tint; throat, fore-neck, breast, and belly
light brownish-yellow, each feather with a central blackish-brown
streak; wing-coverts light greyish-brown, those next the body becoming
darker; primary quills dark brown, deeper on their inner webs;
secondaries lighter, and on their outer webs of nearly the same light
tint as their coverts; tail uniform dark brown.
_Male_, 43, 122.
From Louisiana northward. Exceedingly rare. The specimen figured
procured in Kentucky. One seen in Labrador.
Bird of Washington, Falco Washingtonii, Aud. Orn. Biog. v. i.
p. 58.
14. 2. Haliaetus leucocephalus, Linn. White-headed Sea-Eagle.--Bald
Eagle.
Plate XXXI. Adult Male. Plate CXXVI. Young.
Male. Tarsus with a few scutella; toes terminally scutellate. Male
with the bill, cere, iris, and feet yellow; the head, the neck for
half its length, the rump, upper and lower tail-coverts, and tail
white; the rest of the plumage chocolate-brown, the terminal margins
of all the feathers pale greyish-brown. Female similar. Young with the
bill brownish-black, iris dark brown, feet yellow; the general colour
of the plumage very dark chocolate, uniform, the feathers without
edgings, all white at the base, that colour appearing more or less on
the hind part, and more especially on the fore part and sides of the
neck, and on the sides of the body and lower wing-coverts; quills and
tail-feathers brownish-black, tinged with grey toward the base; the
latter with the greater part of the inner webs, and a portion of the
outer brownish-white, freckled with dusky. In more advanced stages the
colours of the plumage vary considerably in different individuals. The
general tint continues brown for several years, a variable and often a
large proportion of white, or brownish-white, appearing on the neck,
the lower part of the body, the sides, and under the wings, the tail
meanwhile gradually becoming white in freckled patches, some have a
large patch of brownish-white across the breast. When the feathers are
new, they are of a glossy deep brown, but when old and worn they
present a bleached appearance, and the upper parts are often patched
with pale brown or brownish-white. On account of these circumstances,
individuals of different ages, and shot at different periods of the
year, differ so much from each other in appearance, that one might,
without a very extended comparison, conceive that in a collection of
specimens, there might be several species. The bill remains dark until
the head and tail become white; the anterior tarsal scutella differ
from none to six, the posterior from nine to twelve; those on the hind
toe are four, on the middle toe from nine to thirteen.
_Male_, 34, 84.
Throughout North America. Resident in the south and west.
Bald Eagle, Falco Haliaetus, Wils. Amer. Ornith. v. iv. p. 89.
Adult.
Sea Eagle, Falco ossifragus, Wils. Amer. Ornith. v. vii. p.
16. Young.
Falco leucocephalus, Bonap. Synops. p. 26.
Aquila leucocephala, White-headed Eagle, Swains. & Rich. F.
Bor Amer. v. ii. p. 15.
White-headed or Bald Eagle, Falco leucocephalus, Nutt. Man. v.
i. p. 72.
White-headed Eagle, Falco leucocephalus, Aud. Ornith. Biog. v.
i. p. 160, v. ii. p. 160, v. v. p. 354.
GENUS V. PANDION, Sav. OSPREY.
Bill short, as broad as deep at the base, the sides convex, the dorsal
outline straight at the base, decurved towards the end; upper mandible
with a festoon on the edges at the curvature, the tip trigonal, very
acute; lower mandible with the edges slightly arched, the tip obtusely
truncate. Nostrils oval, oblique, large, half-way between the ridge
and the cere. Legs rather long; tarsus very short, remarkably thick,
covered all round with hexagonal scales; toes also remarkably thick,
the outer versatile larger than the inner, all scutellate only towards
the end, and covered beneath with prominent, conical, acuminate
scales; claws long, curved, convex beneath, tapering to a fine point.
Plumage compact, imbricated; feathers of the head and neck narrow,
acuminate; of the tarsus short and very narrow, without the elongated
external tufts seen in all the other genera. Tail rather long, a
little rounded. Intestine extremely long and slender, its greatest
width 2-1/4 twelfths, the smallest 1/2 twelfth.